Just as one crane in Tysons prepares to descend, another has emerged on the other side of I-495 to fill the skyline.
Construction has moved above ground on The Monarch, a luxury condominium tower under development at 7887 Jones Branch Drive northeast of Tysons Galleria, developer Renaissance Centro announced in a news release yesterday (Monday).
The Monarch originally broke ground in April 2019 and was expected to open in late 2020. However, the departure of the project’s contractor stalled work on the building until this past June, after Hoar Construction was selected as the new general contractor.
With construction underway again, The Monarch says Hoar is on schedule to deliver the 20-story, 94-unit tower by mid-2023.
Despite the construction hiatus, more than 30% of the available condos have already been sold, according to the developer, which says the purchase contracts for three of the units have exceeded $3.5 million each — record prices for the Tysons market.
Accompanied by 6,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space, The Monarch’s condos come in more than a dozen different floor plans, ranging in size from 800 to 4,090 square feet and in price from $600,000 to $4.1 million.
According to the news release, amenities include personalized concierge service, a hospitality suite for visitors, a fitness center, and a pool:
Designed by WDG Architecture, the iconic Monarch tower will have only two to seven residences per floor, some with direct elevator access. All units except studios will have floor-to-ceiling windows on two or three sides and expansive balconies or terraces.
Residents will enjoy a variety of indoor and outdoor shared spaces for relaxing, socializing, and staying active. The lushly landscaped garden terrace will feature an inviting pool surrounded by lounge seating and grill stations. The terrace will overlook a stand of mature trees including a trail leading to Arbor Row Stream Valley Park.
An impressive residents’ lounge with comfortable seating will be located adjacent to the garden terrace, with a fireplace, book nook, bar area, and catering kitchen. A state-of-the-art fitness center will be on the same floor, and will feature high-end exercise equipment, a stretching area, spa-like locker rooms, and personalized fitness options. Topping it all off will be Monarch’s exclusive 20th floor private dining room with stunning 180-degree views of the surrounding area.
Monarch’s meticulously designed residences are distinguished by spacious living rooms, walk-in showers, large closets, luxurious bathrooms, and white oak flooring throughout. The open chef-inspired kitchens will have oversized waterfall kitchen islands, quartz countertops and full-height backsplashes, concealed-panel Miele appliances, and modern European cabinetry. Optional upgrades include natural stone selections, automated shades, heated floors, wine refrigeration, and more.
The Monarch is part of the six-parcel, mixed-use Arbor Row development that will eventually occupy 19 acres along Westpark Drive.
The first portion of the development was completed in 2015, when Fairfax County cut the ribbon on Arbor Row Stream Valley Park (8101 Jones Branch Drive) and two Jones Branch athletic fields. The Nouvelle, a 27-story residential building, was delivered in 2016.
The 300-unit senior living facility The Mather is scheduled to open a first residential tower at 7929 Westpark Drive in 2023, followed by a second tower in 2024. The complex launched pre-sales for the second tower in June.
In total, Arbor Row will have more than 1,400 residential units and 35,000 square feet of ground-level retail when completed.
Cause of Death Confirmed in Bailey’s Crossroads Murder — “A 19-year-old man stabbed his father several times in the upper body and then burned his father’s body before burying him in the family’s backyard in the Bailey’s Crossroads area of Fairfax County, the county police department said Monday. Philip Nguyen was arrested and charged with second-degree murder last Wednesday in his father’s killing.” [Patch]
Area Residents Can Get Abortion Medication By Mail — Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, which serves the D.C. area, has been offering abortion medications by mail to patients in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia since Aug. 12. The new service was officially announced on Friday (Sept. 10) shortly after the Supreme Court allowed a prohibition on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy to take effect in Texas. [The Washington Post]
Deadline to Apply for Amazon REACH Funds Extended — The deadline to submit affordable housing proposals to Fairfax County for up to $5 million each in Amazon REACH funds has been pushed to 4 p.m. Friday (Sept. 17). The state has committed $15 million annually to support affordable housing in Northern Virginia as part of the deal that brought Amazon’s second headquarters to Arlington County. [Fairfax County Housing and Community Development]
Tysons Consultant Buys Maryland Cybersecurity Company — “Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. (NYSE: BAH) again tapped the mergers and acquisitions market, it announced Monday, purchasing cybersecurity company Tracepoint. Terms of the acquisition weren’t disclosed, but the move follows a strategic investment the McLean management and IT consulting firm made in the Fredericksburg company back in January.” [Washington Business Journal]
Silver Line Phase 2 Construction Could Finish This Fall — Construction on the long-delayed Silver Line Phase 2 could reach substantial completion in November, letting Metro take control of the project for a potential opening in the first half of 2022, officials said yesterday (Thursday). The project will add six stations to the rail line, whose first phase opened in the Tysons area in July 2014. [The Washington Post]
Vienna Town Council Gets Peek at Police HQ — “Donning hard hats, members of the Vienna Town Council got a first-hand look at the new police headquarters construction [Thursday] morning. Later they joined staff and contractors to sign one of the steel beams. As of now, the new facility is on schedule to open in summer 2022.” [Town of Vienna/Twitter]
Tysons Consultant and IT Firm Merge — Tysons-based consulting company Guidehouse has agreed to acquire the McLean-based Dovel Technologies Inc., which provides data analytics, artificial intelligence, and other technology services. Expected to close in the fourth quarter of this year, the sale will add 1,800 employees from Dovel to Guidehouse, which plans to expand with a new global headquarters on International Drive later this year. [Virginia Business]
Annandale Resident Dies in Helicopter Crash — “An Annandale man was one of the five sailors killed in a helicopter crash following a flight operation off the coast of San Diego on Aug. 31. Lt. Paul R. “Boo” Fridley, 28, of Annandale was part of the crew…conducting a routine flight operation from USS Abraham Lincoln when the aircraft crashed into the sea roughly 60 nautical miles off the coast of San Diego at 4:30 p.m.” [Patch]
(Updated on Sept. 10) The Tysons skyline will soon look a little emptier, as one of the three cranes looming over Capital One Center near the Capital Beltway is scheduled to be disassembled next week.
The move marks a turning point in construction on the mixed-use development forming around Capital One’s headquarters. The Perch sky park opened to the public last month, and the performing arts venue Capital One Hall and The Watermark Hotel will come online this fall.
The next phase focuses on two office towers — one 24 stories tall and the other 30 stories, plus a roof — that the cranes have been piecing together on the site. Linked by an atrium, the buildings will encompass 900,000 square feet of office and retail space, slated to be finished in 2023, according to Capital One Center.
Miller & Long — one of dozens of subcontractors for the project — topped off both towers earlier this year, but crane operators have been assisting other parts of the build, and the skyscrapers are still a hard-hat site.
The tallest crane, which towers 550 feet above ground, will come down by mid-October, and crews will remove the remaining crane on the north side of the new buildings by the end of the year.
The bulk of Miller & Long’s work on Capital One Center occurred last year even as the COVID-19 pandemic upended the construction industry across the country.
Construction jobs in Virginia took an initial hit before the industry bounced back to its pre-pandemic peak of over 207,000 jobs by the end of 2020. Since January, though, employment has dropped again by several thousand.
Miller & Long CEO Brett McMahon says the dip stems from a statewide pause in college and university construction. He says that’s only a limited factor for dips in jobs statewide, not Tysons.
“The state university projects…started getting pushed and pushed and pushed,” he said. “That part of it may be a big chunk of what’s affecting the overall demand for construction.”
However, Miller & Long expects to see continued growth in the D.C. region and is “pursuing a record number of projects,” Vice President of Logistics Jim Martinoski says.
While other businesses faced multi-week shutdowns or had to adapt to work-from-home setups, construction of the two Capital One Center office towers only halted for one day due to COVID-19 sometime around late spring of 2020, Martinoski says.
Even for a commercial development project, Capital One Center has been a massive undertaking, sprawling across 26 acres of land at the intersection of I-495 and Route 123.
Miller & Long poured 100,000 cubic yards of concrete for the Capital One headquarters, which began in 2014 and finished in 2018. The adjacent block featuring Capital One Hall, The Watermark Hotel, and Wegmans required another 100,000 cubic yards.
The new office towers have consumed 90,000 cubic yards of concrete. Typical jobs for 20 to 30-story buildings involve 20,000 to 30,000 cubic yards.
The Capital One campus is part of a development boom in Tysons that has also seen a shift to more eco-friendly buildings, according to Miller & Long.
While working on Capital One Center, the contractor has started using more environmentally friendly cement made in batches at the site, reducing the need for trucks to haul it to the work site as has been done traditionally.
“It’s amazing how much it has grown,” McMahon said of Tysons. “It was a bit of farmland when I was a kid.”
Controversy Hits Tysons Korean Cooking Contest — Half of the judges for the 2021 K-Food Cook-Off have quit after a statement introducing one of them drew social media criticism for suggesting that the D.C. area has a lack of Korean restaurants. The competition, which will be held on Sept. 26 at the Tysons Hyatt Regency, has also come under fire for only having one judge of Korean heritage on its original panel. [Washington City Paper]
Police Investigate Possible Murder in Falls Church — Fairfax County police found the remains of 78-year-old Truman Nguyen in a shallow grave behind his house near Bailey’s Crossroads yesterday after a family member reported him missing on Monday (Sept. 6). His son was arrested and has been charged with murder, which would make it the county’s 18th homicide this year, triple the number that had been reported at this time in 2020. [The Washington Post]
Family of 9/11 Victim Shares Memories of Tragic Day — Now a student pursuing a master’s degree at George Mason University, Fairfax County resident An Nguyen was just 4 when his father was killed in the terrorist attack on the Pentagon, where both of his parents worked. His mother, who came to the U.S. from Vietnam as a child, was not at the Pentagon when the plane hit. [NBC4]
Tysons Business Group Hosts Statewide Candidates Forum — “The Multicultural Chamber Alliance (MCCA), a powerful collaborative initiative of the Asian American Chamber, the Northern Virginia Black Chamber and the Virginia Hispanic Chamber, invites the press and general public to attend the Annual Candidates Forum. The Candidates Forum will take place Thursday, September 9, 2021, from 10 am-12 pm, at the University of North America (12750 Fair Lakes Circle) in Fairfax, Virginia.” [MCCA]
Lieutenant Governor Candidates Speak at Tysons Luncheon — “Candidates for lieutenant governor of Virginia told their personal stories and articulated their values at a Sept. 1 luncheon in Tysons, but provided few specifics on what they would seek to accomplish if elected.” [Sun Gazette/Inside NoVA]
MCC to Hold Public Meeting on Budget Tonight — “The McLean Community Center (MCC) Governing Board will hold two, in-person budget meetings this month in order to gather input and suggestions from the residents of Dranesville Small District 1-A on the Center’s fiscal year 2023 budget. The first meeting, the Finance Committee Meeting of the Whole, will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 8.” [Falls Church News-Press]
Tysons Startup Raises Millions in Funding — The Tysons-based startup theCut, a mobile platform that enables users to book and pay for barbershop appointments, announced last week that it has raised $4.5 million in seed money, bringing its total funding to $5.35 million to date. Company leaders say they will use the funds to build out a team that currently consists of 20 employees, including interns. [DC Inno]
An office building from the 1970s could be demolished to make way for a modern skyscraper along the Capital Beltway in Tysons.
The 11-story, 135-foot tall Park Place I (7926 Jones Branch Drive) is slated for an overhaul. Property owner B.F. Saul Real Estate Investment Trust is looking to replace it with a building with ground-floor retail, a terraced plaza, outdoor seating areas, and “trophy-class office space,” according to application materials.
The developer is seeking a special exception from Fairfax County to waive certain requirements, including an increase in the site’s permitted building height, to make way for the project.
“Compared to the existing building, the proposed Park Place I building will be rotated 90 degrees, thereby opening up views, light, and air through the site and creating symmetry with the adjacent Hilton Worldwide headquarters building,” Mark Viani, a land use and zoning lawyer for the project, said in a July 2 statement of justification to the county.
Viani, who works with the Arlington-based law firm Bean, Kinney, & Korman, noted that the current building remains in operation but “is outdated and is 100% vacant of all tenants.”
B.F. Saul previously submitted plans for an 18-story building in 2018, when it sought to obtain a parking requirement exception. Under its current plan, the redeveloped property would provide 1,842 spaces — more than the 1,506 spaces required.
As part of improvements, the owner would provide 4,040 square feet of urban park space at the property along Jones Branch Drive, which also would be widened to accommodate a new bike lane.
Park Place II (7930 Jones Branch Drive) would not be affected by the redevelopment project. The 147-foot tall office building was built in 2008 and remains home to Hilton’s corporate headquarters.
The proposed construction project is in a C-4 High Intensity Office District county zoning area, which restricts a building height to 120 feet and requires a front setback of 54 feet.
Under the names Tysons Park Inc. and Tysons Park Place II LLC, B.F. Saul is requesting permission for the new building to be 175 feet high and other waivers, including a 41-foot front setback.
The proposal calls for amending a special exception that was approved in 2000 and permitted the Park Place II to reach up to 150 feet in height but maintained Park Place I’s current height, according to the application.
As part of the justification in the request, Viani noted the county’s Tysons Comprehensive Plan calls for buildings up to 175 feet tall in that area based on its proximity to Metro stations. He says that by building “up” rather than “out,” the applicants will better improve pedestrian-oriented spaces and on-site open space.
“Its location along a prominent road makes it a desirable site for additional height to help create a stronger building identity and sense of place in Tysons,” Viani wrote.
(Updated at 10:15 a.m.) Exactly one month before it opens to the public for the first time, Capital One Hall has announced that all patrons will be required to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test in order to attend an event.
Attendees will also be required to wear face masks while inside Tysons’ new performing arts venue except when they’re actively eating or drinking.
According to an email sharing the new policies, either a hard-copy vaccine card or a photo can be used as proof of vaccination, but the last dose must have been administered at least 14 days prior to the event. Individuals must also have a form of photo identification with a name that matches the one on their card.
For those who choose to present proof of a negative COVID-19 test instead, the test must be one approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and it must have been taken within 48 hours of entering Capital One Hall.
A spokesperson for Capital One Center, the mixed-use development that’s emerging around the financial giant’s headquarters in Tysons, says the mask and vaccination policies were determined by ASM Global, the company that operates Capital One Hall.
“Their decision and rationale is fact-based, on guidance from experts, feedback from their network of venues around best-practices, input from shows/tours/acts, and the like,” the spokesperson wrote in an email, adding that the requirements will also be in place for both full and part-time employees.
According to the spokesperson, Capital One Hall is expected to soon have its protocols and health risk mitigation best practices certified by the Global Biorisk Advisory Council, an international network that evaluates facilities for their preparedness and response to infectious disease and biohazard situations.
“The policy at Capital One Hall is continuously reviewed as conditions and circumstances change, and any changes will be communicated directly to ticket holders and the policy updated on the Capital One Hall website,” the Capital One Center spokesperson said.
Capital One Hall will kick off its inaugural season on Oct. 2 with an 8 p.m. show by the country band Little Big Town.
Since confirming a performer for the first time in early June, the performing arts center has filled out its initial season with musical, comedy, theater, orchestral, and family-oriented acts. The full schedule can be found on the Capital One Hall website.
The venue consists of a 1,600-seat main theater as well as a 225-seat black box theater called The Vault. Other amenities include a terrace, an atrium for weddings and other events, a conference board room, and meeting rooms that can also function as classrooms.
The 11th floor of the building features The Perch, a 2.5-acre park that includes an amphitheater, a dog park, and the Starr Hill Biergarten, which opened to the public on Aug. 21. The Perch is scheduled to have a three-day grand opening event on Sept. 17-19.
The Watermark Hotel, a 25-floor, 300-suite luxury hotel that sits above Capital One Hall, is set to open on Sept. 21.
Help Name Former Container Store — Celebrate Fairfax is turning the former Container Store at 8505 Leesburg Pike in Tysons into a community event venue whose name will be determined by a social media poll. The options are Tysons Commons, Tysons Collective, Social District at Tysons, and The PARC (People, Art, Recreation, and Community) at Tysons. [Celebrate Fairfax Festival/Twitter]
Inova-Tested Drug Helps COVID Patients — “A drug tested at Inova Health System has shown to improve clinical outcomes in hospitalized COVID-19 patients who required supplemental oxygen. The Phase 2 clinical trial evaluating the safety of fostamatinib was conducted on behalf of Rigel Pharmaceuticals Inc…Results were published Wednesday in Clinical Infectious Diseases, an official publication of the Infectious Disease Society of America.” [Inside NoVA]
Falls Church to Get First Electric School Buses — “FCCPS is one of 19 Virginia school divisions receiving a grant to replace diesel school buses with new electric buses. The grant announcement came last Thursday, in a news release from the governor’s office. FCCPS will receive $530,000 for two electric buses from the Volkswagen (VW) Environmental Mitigation Trust.” [Falls Church News-Press]
Local Nonprofit Names New Leader — “Vienna-based Langley Residential Support Services, a nonprofit serving adults with developmental disabilities, has named a new executive director. Langley Residential’s board hired Maureen K. Gum as executive director after she served as interim executive director.” [Patch]
Local Woman Gets First Haircut in 17 Years — “There is the slightest chance that as the scissors close in on Zahab Kamal Khan’s hair Thursday morning at the McLean Community Center, she will break from the crowd and the TV news crews and make a run for it. After all, Zahab’s hair — all 6 feet, 3 inches of it — is one of her most prized possessions. She’s been growing it for 17 years, since she was 13.” [The Washington Post]
Vienna Church Celebrates 150th Anniversary — “Vienna Presbyterian Church began in 1871 with nine people — seven female members and two male elders — and in the decades since has ministered to people both in the local area and around the world. The church celebrated its 150th anniversary Aug. 22 with sermons, testimonials, song and fellowship.” [Sun Gazette]
Enjoy Tysons Boulevard Lane Closure — “Looking for a family friendly activity this weekend? Come be #activeintysons because we are hosting a Back-to-School Meetup this Saturday from 10AM-12PM, in Tysons #openstreet along Tysons Blvd. We hope to see you rain or shine for story time with Tysons School Board Representive, Karl Frisch, light refreshments, fun and games!” [Tysons Partnership/Twitter]
